


rivers 'til i reach you

by cinderfell



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Ambiguous Time During Conclave Arc, Critical Role Relationship Week, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-09
Updated: 2017-02-09
Packaged: 2018-09-23 00:29:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 403
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9631637
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cinderfell/pseuds/cinderfell
Summary: Waiting is always the worst part, Pike finds.





	

**Author's Note:**

> something short and soft for critrole rsweek.
> 
> the title comes from "rivers and roads" by the head and the heart, which is honestly just a really wonderful pike song in general

Pike runs warm like sunlight, her hands rough and calloused from armor and maces and ships. She carries her time at sea with her in other ways, too; in the way she speaks, in her soft off-key songs, and a certainty in the way she acts that she didn’t have before. Vex tells her she smells like salt water and freedom, and Pike wonders what she’d be like on the open sea.

Vex is cold to the touch, a rough contrast to the warmth she puts up as a front. Her eyes are dark and wild with a soft undercurrent of sadness in them if Pike looks too close, an eyebrow almost eternally quirked and a smirk playing across her lips-- another mask, another distraction. She carries the forest with her at all times, her skin smelling of bear and dirt and, faintly, the scent of the woods after a rainstorm.

Waiting is always the worst part, Pike finds. Away in her temple, away in Whitestone-- away, _away_ , always away. Her life is defined by a cycle of waiting and watching.

She counts heads when they scurry through the Sun Tree, each time a cold seed of worry burning away inside her heart. First tall and lumbering with a bitty resting on his shoulder, then white-haired and pale and followed by red and antlers. Then comes the dark hair, the thin frame, and the dark eyes. Her breath always catches as she waits for this part; waits to see if they’re both there.

And she is.

She’s bloodied and limping and looks like she’s ready to pass out, but she’s there.

Pike takes off running as fast as her little legs can carry her.

Vex falls to her knees in front of Pike when she reaches her. She’s too tired, too worn down from all she’s seen and done to keep her carefully constructed mask up. A crack runs across it, and Vex breaks apart as soon as Pike is close enough to touch. Her eyes brim red, her bottom lip quivers. She does not cry-- she will not cry, Pike knows, not until they’re alone.

Pike gathers the taller woman in her arms and Vex manages to make herself smaller, tucks herself under Pike’s chin and let’s out a shuddering breath. Pike presses a soft kiss to the top of her head.

Waiting is hard, but there are things worth waiting for.


End file.
